“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” ― George Bernard Shaw With a new administration at the Department of Justice, practitioners and commentators are looking for signs of change. Given the current politics of the new administration, the Justice Department will undergo changes in civil rights, antitrust, and criminal enforcement. These “new” or return to old policy announcements were not surprising since they went hand-in-hand...

In its continuing quest to push the message of aggressive FCPA enforcement, the SEC resolved FCPA charges against Orthofix, a medical device company, for $6 million in penalties and disgorgement. In a related action, the SEC announced that Orthofix and four executives agreed to pay $8 million for accounting control errors. The Justice Department declined to prosecute Orthofix. All of this sounds reasonable, except for...

The D.C. Circuit dealt a blow last week to judicial attempts to exercise supervision over Justice Department negotiated Deferred Prosecution Agreements. In United States v. Fokker (Here), the Court answered the question in a resounding affirmation  of the authority of prosecutors to resolve criminal cases and exercise discretion in charging decisions. In the end, the court’s decision was not a great surprise but the strength...